A potentially ground-breaking development occurred in the global fight against climate change. On Friday, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution recognising access to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental right.
What is the impact of this move? It must be remembered that this resolution passed by the UNHRC is not legally binding—it only has persuasive authority. Considering that a binding deal and international pressure could not stop a superpower like the US from unilaterally backing out of a climate-change deal shows that resolutions and votes in the UN, apart from the Security Council, can only have limited power. Secondly, it must be noted that there are currently 47 members in the UNHRC, elected for staggered three-year terms. This means that the resolution was not voted on by some major countries, like the US which is not in the UNHRC this term.
However, there is still quite a lot of symbolic importance of this resolution which must not be undermined. Firstly a successful vote has diplomatic power nonetheless. This resolution can serve as a path for the global community to lead the conversation towards climate change. It can also help in drafting guidelines and strengthening the case for many civil rights activists in pursuing pro-environment policies in their regions. Lawyers involved in climate litigation say it could help them build arguments in cases involving the environment and human rights. This is the first step and if built on, it could lead to more binding decisions in the International Court of Justice or with other international organisations. Secondly, there have been some surprising successful powerful votes—that of Britain for example, which was persuaded to change its vote to a yes. Countries’ votes are powerful tools, which their citizens can use to challenge their leaders to follow through.
Tens of thousands of people from every corner of the globe are now preparing to gather in Glasgow for a two-week United Nations summit on slowing climate change. This resolution must be leveraged to obtain concessions from world powers to do more on curbing climate change.
